About us
Welcome to our Parish
We warmly welcome everyone at St Peter's Anglican Church, Temuka. Our doors are open to all, no matter where you are on life's journey, as together we seek to grow in faith and to make a difference in our community, giving thanks for the love of God shown to us through Jesus Christ.
When you enter St Peter's you will find yourself in a traditionally decorated church which inspires reflection, prayer and peace. The congregation are welcoming and inclusive. Those preaching use a variety of different styles to stimulate and encourage engagement with the Scriptures.
The New Zealand Prayer Book (He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa), provides the framework for our worship which is both inclusive and welcoming as we explore faith and together discover more of God's love and leading in our common life together.
St Peter's is centrally located in Temuka, built in 1889 from local bluestone and limestone it has been an iconic landmark in South Canterbury for many generations. Today St Peter’s congregation continues to gather for services each Sunday as well as weddings, baptisms and funerals. It is a well-loved heritage building, treasured by both its parishioners and the Temuka community alike.
St Peter's Anglican Church is confidently facing the future as we undertake to serve our community and to extend God's love in ways that are inspired by our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our Mission
As people who worship God we pray and work for the coming of God's kingdom, on Earth as in heaven.
We are guided in our common life by the Anglican Church's internationally adopted Five Marks of Mission:
To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom
To teach, baptise and nurture new believers
To respond to human need by loving service
To transform unjust structures of society, challenge violence of every kind and pursue peace and reconciliation
To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth
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Connecting people with Christ;
To involve families in a variety of ways in the life of our parish
To raise our profile in the community and build relationships with community partners
To grow our worship and spiritual life
History
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St Peters Church is an impressive stone building built in 15th century Gothic style. The exterior is finished with Timaru bluestone with Kakahu white stone facings and copings. The interior walls are finished in Kakahu white stone blocks.
The foundation stone for this church was laid on June 29 1898 and the church building was completed that year with additions to the Chancel in 1927 and the Vestry extension in 1965. Prior to St Peter’s Church another church – St Saviours, a simple wooden structure, was destroyed by fire in 1897. Fortunately, due to the heroic actions of the vicar at that time, the Lectern and Bible were saved and are still in use in the church today.
Work on St Peter’s Church began soon after. A considerable number of volunteers assisted with the building including a group of men who lent traction engines free of cost to haul the blue stone from Timaru and the limestone from Kakahu.
The land was gifted by Mrs Hayhurst and the new building was designed by Mr J. A. S. Turnbull of Timaru. The stone contractor was Mr S. Mc Bride while the woodwork was completed by Messrs Church and Lloyd.
On the foundation stone is the inscription St Peter’s Day, June 29 , 1898 and underneath it were placed the papers of the day, a bottle containing coins and a parchment containing the names of all those connected with the project.
A year later the church was opened for worship and dedicated but not consecrated at that time due to the building not being free from debt. The debt was finally cleared by 1922 due to the efforts of the Ladies Guild who had been collecting threepences, holding bazaars, fairs, concerts and garden parties to raise the remaining finance for the building and organ. Then the church could be consecrated by Archbishop Julius on 29 June 1922.
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The interior has been likened to those of the old country (England) by those who built it and have worshipped in it. Originally the seating consisted of chairs imported from England and commencing in 1928, these were replaced with pews, many of them gifts and memorials as the plaques fixed to them show. Mrs J. S. Hayes provided the carved reredos over the altar and also the episcopal chair and Litany desk all of which are still in the church today. The white stone and marble pulpit was given by Mrs Hayhurst and the stone font given by Mr and Mrs Rooke of Temuka.
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On March 21, 1927, Bishop West-Watson consecrated an addition to the chancel of the church. This had been provided for by a bequest of Mr John Talbot to furnish a memorial to two of his sons killed in the Great War. Then on September 23 the very beautiful east window was dedicated in memory of Mr Talbot himself, the gift from his family. Also donated by members of the Talbot family is the stained-glass window on the north side by the pulpit. It is dedicated to the service of Laurence and Elsie Talbot who had served in many different roles within the church as well as faithful parishioners of St Peter's Church.
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The organ originally came from Christchurch where it had been used in the “Temple of Truth” a tabernacle of a new religion at that time. To begin with it was installed on the south-west corner of the nave but later re-modelled and moved to its present position.
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Over a period of 60 years the tiny vestry had limitations so a new addition was built by a Swiss stonemason, Kurt Kempf and Watson Construction Company. It was finally dedicated by Bishop Warren on 15 March 1965.The Armitage family erected a bell tower above the Vestry in 1972 to the memory of the late George Armitage, a Church Warden for 15 years. In the mid- 1960’s, the slate roof on the church required replacing. A spirited sermon by Rev. Cecil Blackie posed the loss of a beautiful church to the weather with demolition a possibility. This had the desired effect and the replacement cost was oversubscribed within 6 days.
